Ensuring teacher autonomy seems to be a growing issue in the world of education. It appears as though teachers are being pushed aside and not given the freedom that they need to run their classrooms how they want to. Teacher autonomy can be defined as "the ability to improve one's own teaching through one's own efforts"(Balcikanli &Reinders). This is often jeopardized when administration and state laws try to tell teachers exactly what to do, and how to teach their classes. The argument is that teachers are qualified to run their classrooms, and they know their students better than anyone, and thus can prepare their own lessons based off of the individualized learning of their students. Oftentimes, students have individual needs that only the teacher has detected, and those students generally need differentiated instruction in order to learn the most that they possibly can. Scripted curriculum, standardized testing, and other such hindrances are posing a threat to this system, and frustrating teachers who only want the best for their students.
Our group aims to try to identify what systems and/or policies are currently in place that restrict the individual power or autonomy of the teacher. Teachers' voices are often lost when they are preoccupied with test results and scripted curriculum. Due to limited collaboration time, teachers are not always as prepared as they could be each day for classes, and often feel alone in the school.
II. Research Summary
Lead Editor: Hayley Doyle
Most teachers are well-qualified, and should be trusted to do what they do. However, they often are brushed aside, and deprived of many of the freedoms that are needed to successfully run their classrooms. Things such as strict scripted curriculums make differentiating instruction almost impossible. Additionally, teachers are lacking the collaboration time that they need to share their ideas with other teachers, who are faced with the same issues daily. All of these things threaten teacher autonomy.
In what ways are teachers restricted by scripted curriculums? curriculum
According to The Glossary of education reform, "the scripting of curriculum is the most prescriptive form of standardized, prepackaged curriculum, since it typically requires teachers to not only follow a particular sequence of preprepared lessons, but to actually read aloud from a teaching script in class (Hidden curriculum)." In my own words, it is a preset lesson plan that dictates exactly when and how certain material is presented to the students.
My overarching research question focused on the positive and negative aspects of scripted curriculums. I read about teachers who loved the idea that all of the lesson planning was done for them, but I also read about teachers who even went so far as to say that scripted curriculums made them want to quit, despite how much they were passionate about teaching. Many articles interviewed teachers who saw scripted curriculums as a threat to their personal autonomy. The scripted curriculums are so easy to follow that the teacher doesn't have to do much at all. This make veteran teachers feel as if they are being replaced, and they loose their passion for teaching. They also stressed the fact that the most important thing is that the teacher has the freedom that he or she needs to personalize the classroom. They argued that teachers are well-qualified and have gone to school specifically to learn the best ways to educate our nation's youth. The next step is to figure out which parts of the scripted curriculum are the most effective, and worth the time, which often differs for every student. Many sources claimed that the best teachers base their lesson plans off of some sort of scripted material, and modify it over time to fit the individual needs of each and every student. Additionally, the promotion of creative thinking was a reoccurring concern, for many feared that scripted curriculums would take about creative thinking, which is a vital part of education and self-development. In the articles that I read, effective teacher did this by encouraging the kids to ask questions or allowing them to present the information that they learned in individual and unique ways.
However, some articles did propose some of the positive attributes of scripted curriculums. The pre-set programs fully equip teachers with everything that they need to run their classroom. There was no need for them to spend hours planning lessons anymore, because it was all done for then. Additionally, many have proven to provide academic success, and prepare students to improve on standardized testing. Parents love the idea of being able to see, step-by-step, exactly what their children are learning in school, and what they will be learning in the future. One article in particular stressed the fact that anyone could follow the scripted curriculums and teach a class, whether they are a teacher or not. However, that poses a threat to the actual teachers, whose voices seem to get lost in the crowd. Based on the sources that I read regarding scripted curriculums, my overall position is that they can be beneficial if balanced with creative thinking. The key is granting the teachers the freedom to modify the curriculum, and fit it to the needs of their own students.
How and why should teachers see an increase in planning and collaboration time?
This research question has its roots in school day scheduling, but really it affects almost every aspect of school. Without proper times during the school day to plan lessons, most teachers take one of two paths: either they plan outside of the school during after hours, taking away from family and personal time, and quickly get burned out and overburdened, or they teach with a heavy emphasis on textbooks to do all the explaining. Both of these options have poor and quantitative outcomes: new teachers decide to leave teaching, leaving schools scrambling to find new teachers, and students are taught in a non-stimulating environment with a focus on memorization over understanding. Solutions to this problem also seem to fall into two categories: extending the school day, or shortening the amount of time teachers spend in the classroom. In Massachusetts, teachers have over an hour more time in school than teachers in Rhode Island, and Massachusetts is currently leading in teacher collaboration and planning time. However, the US has teachers teaching for almost 3 times as long as other countries - countries that "outperform" the US on standardized tests.
If either one of these strategies could be implemented in Rhode Island, collaboration would become achievable. Collaboration has been proven to be a key component of good teaching; with it comes the strong flow of ideas that participants can look at from different perspectives and can help each other to evaluate and implement. Teaches have found that collaboration reinvigorates their level of teaching, makes them feel like they have a support system, and brings communities together on a small and large scale. Collaboration is the next step to bring to the classroom if schools in the US want to help teachers and students succeed.
How can teachers differentiate instruction in the 21st century classroom?
In order to tackle this issue, we need to see what is going on in today's classrooms. How are individual student needs currently being dressed? What are the best and the worst ways educators are doing so? Are students being separated based on ability into homogeneous classrooms? In this kind of setting, how are students expected to improve and reach a better understanding of the mixed work force they will one day help comprise?
Unfortunately, this is happening is our classrooms. I have personally witnessed it, but luckily for me, on the better end of the spectrum. Not only are students being separated, however, but it has become more difficult to address the different difficulties students are encountering because of the shared standards they must all meet. Should students have to meet certain academic standards? Absolutely. Is it realistic to suggest that each individual student can reach these standards in the exact same way? No, that's absolutely ridiculous. Students have different learning styles as well as interests. My research involved finding articles, often written by an individual who is serving currently in "the field" that is the modern classroom, and studying their reports of how different kinds of approaches to instruction positively and negatively affect students. This is a key area in which teacher's must be allowed to address the issues in their class and practice their autonomy for not only themselves, but for the good of their students.
III. Group Product Overview
Lead Editor: Chris Parisella
After each member of our team investigated their individual topic, we came together in order to synthesize a presentation meant to effectively describe a teacher's autonomy in the 21st century classroom. We've each crafted brief power points in order to organize our thoughts as we take turns introducing the topics of teacher autonomy, teacher collaboration, and the effects of scripted curriculum on the classroom. On top of these individual presentations, we've included several fun activities, activities which we hope the class will enjoy. Students can participate in an interesting game of charades as well as an academically fueled race, cleverly devised by our very own Melissa Morris and Hayley Doyle. Our charades activity is meant to display just how little of a voice teacher's have today. Many are struggling to address the complex issues they face in their classrooms as they can't properly communicate their needs. Our second activity is meant to address how students all have different needs and areas of strength and weakness. Looking at it like a race, some students are suited to the scripted curriculum or method of teaching used conventionally while others have their "legs tied together" so to speak. However, because teachers are being discouraged to differentiate instruction, they can't do very much to help these students. In addition to all this, several individual members have included video's on their respective topics to add to their presentations.
VI. Group Reaction/Opinion(s) about the issues related to this priority.
Lead Editor: Melissa Morris
We believe that teachers need to be an integrative part of the decision-making process when it comes to education and school reform. Teachers need more of a voice because they are the driving factor that makes schools operate. Instead of placing teachers at the center of attention and asking them what they need, teachers in the US are being left to figure out how to find their way in a teaching environment on their own. Too often today teachers are given instructions from 'experts' on teaching, and are forced to follow any new changes. We believe that teachers should be allowed to use scripted curriculum as a resource, but not as the be-all and end-all of their teaching abilities; they should be allowed to differentiate curriculum based on students needs. Teachers should be given more time to collaborate, to plan, to share ideas, and to be motivated by each other.
Melissa: After researching teacher collaboration, I believe more strongly than ever that collaboration is a huge aspect of school and education reform, but in a bigger sense, I understand that teacher collaboration is dependent on all the topics my peers researched as well. My opinion on education reform therefore stems from the need to see the bigger, intertwining web of education issues, without losing focus on the goal: to help children succeed in the future, socially, academically, and in their well-being. I think that this debate should not be centered around money and politics, but instead should put teachers and students in the spotlight. I also think that we are focusing too much on the negative side of education as a nation. I wonder what affect it would have if we started highlighting things that teachers and administrators are doing well, and brainstorming how those things could be given as a suggestion to other schools. I also think that we should stop implementing things with a "top down" approach. If strategies are going to work on a national level, they need to be pilot tested at different types of schools that are willing to try something new so that the strategy can be evaluated and revised if necessary. Overall, I think that teachers should have more power, and the only way to do that is to flip the education reform argument upsidedown.
Hayley: The heart of America's education system is its teachers. Most people can recall a special teacher from their own schooling experience, usually because that teacher went above and beyond the standard curriculum and appealed individually to them. Teachers often choose to become teachers not because of the money, but because of the desire to influence the growth and development of the children. They are generally well-qualified, but their autonomy is constantly being violated. It has reached the point where it is one of the most important issues in education, because it has reached the point where this violation of rights is actually killing teachers' desires to teach. It is driving away the best teachers that we have, because we are restricting their creative rights and freedom. In some cases, teachers are personally offended by this deprivation of rights, and it makes them feel neglected, without a voice. Most of our teachers are extremely smart, caring, and passionate about their jobs; that is what makes children want to learn. If we continue to jeopardize their autonomy, then we are only going to drive the best ones away, and then what is left of our education system?
Kyle: After completing the research necessary in order to truly understand one of the greatest issues in american education today, I can say, with certainty, that teacher autonomy is a vital part of teaching that is woefully neglected in education today. After all, how are teachers meant to utilize their years of experience and their own intricate knowledge of each student as an independent learner if they are being hampered by scripted curriculum or standardized testing? The answer is, of course, that they can't. In order to better improve education as a whole, the only option, as the research shows, is to loosen(or do away with entirely)scripted curriculum and standardized testing'a control over what teacher's teach their students, and to give teachers more time for collaboration with one another. Based off of the entirety of the research that this group has done within the field of teacher autonomy, it is clear that this issue is no loner one that can be simply shunned or ignored by legislators, it is one that requires immediate and decisive action.
Chris: After reviewing our research alone, I'm more convinced than ever that our system needs serious reform. Scripted curriculum needs to be done away with completely. Students are individuals, and need to be treated as such. By teaching all students the same way, not only can teachers not play to their strengths in the classroom as they should, but they can't address what they identify as individual student's obvious strengths and weaknesses. By reducing the effects of scripted curriculum, differentiated instruction can then be more easily achieved. To reach this point however, it's first important to strengthen teacher voice. If teacher's can't vocalize important issues in their classroom's, how can they be solved? Solving these issues shouldn't be left up to administrators and politicians who can't possibly understand the issues these teachers are encountering in the field. Teacher collaboration additionally is something we need to see more of. Teachers in a given school are working with the same students. By communicating with one another, educators can form action plans to best tackle student issues. I strongly believe strengthening teacher voice is the first step that needs to be taken.
How do we give more power to the teachers?
Hayley, Melissa, Chris, and KyleI. Description of Problem or Issue
Lead Editor: Kyle RodriguesEnsuring teacher autonomy seems to be a growing issue in the world of education. It appears as though teachers are being pushed aside and not given the freedom that they need to run their classrooms how they want to. Teacher autonomy can be defined as "the ability to improve one's own teaching through one's own efforts"(Balcikanli &Reinders). This is often jeopardized when administration and state laws try to tell teachers exactly what to do, and how to teach their classes. The argument is that teachers are qualified to run their classrooms, and they know their students better than anyone, and thus can prepare their own lessons based off of the individualized learning of their students. Oftentimes, students have individual needs that only the teacher has detected, and those students generally need differentiated instruction in order to learn the most that they possibly can. Scripted curriculum, standardized testing, and other such hindrances are posing a threat to this system, and frustrating teachers who only want the best for their students.
Our group aims to try to identify what systems and/or policies are currently in place that restrict the individual power or autonomy of the teacher. Teachers' voices are often lost when they are preoccupied with test results and scripted curriculum. Due to limited collaboration time, teachers are not always as prepared as they could be each day for classes, and often feel alone in the school.
II. Research Summary
Lead Editor: Hayley DoyleMost teachers are well-qualified, and should be trusted to do what they do. However, they often are brushed aside, and deprived of many of the freedoms that are needed to successfully run their classrooms. Things such as strict scripted curriculums make differentiating instruction almost impossible. Additionally, teachers are lacking the collaboration time that they need to share their ideas with other teachers, who are faced with the same issues daily. All of these things threaten teacher autonomy.
In what ways are teachers restricted by scripted curriculums? curriculum
According to The Glossary of education reform, "the scripting of curriculum is the most prescriptive form of standardized, prepackaged curriculum, since it typically requires teachers to not only follow a particular sequence of preprepared lessons, but to actually read aloud from a teaching script in class (Hidden curriculum)." In my own words, it is a preset lesson plan that dictates exactly when and how certain material is presented to the students.
Hidden curriculum (2014, August 26). In S. Abbott (Ed.), The glossary of education reform. Retrieved from http://edglossary.org/hidden-curriculum
My overarching research question focused on the positive and negative aspects of scripted curriculums. I read about teachers who loved the idea that all of the lesson planning was done for them, but I also read about teachers who even went so far as to say that scripted curriculums made them want to quit, despite how much they were passionate about teaching. Many articles interviewed teachers who saw scripted curriculums as a threat to their personal autonomy. The scripted curriculums are so easy to follow that the teacher doesn't have to do much at all. This make veteran teachers feel as if they are being replaced, and they loose their passion for teaching. They also stressed the fact that the most important thing is that the teacher has the freedom that he or she needs to personalize the classroom. They argued that teachers are well-qualified and have gone to school specifically to learn the best ways to educate our nation's youth. The next step is to figure out which parts of the scripted curriculum are the most effective, and worth the time, which often differs for every student. Many sources claimed that the best teachers base their lesson plans off of some sort of scripted material, and modify it over time to fit the individual needs of each and every student. Additionally, the promotion of creative thinking was a reoccurring concern, for many feared that scripted curriculums would take about creative thinking, which is a vital part of education and self-development. In the articles that I read, effective teacher did this by encouraging the kids to ask questions or allowing them to present the information that they learned in individual and unique ways.
However, some articles did propose some of the positive attributes of scripted curriculums. The pre-set programs fully equip teachers with everything that they need to run their classroom. There was no need for them to spend hours planning lessons anymore, because it was all done for then. Additionally, many have proven to provide academic success, and prepare students to improve on standardized testing. Parents love the idea of being able to see, step-by-step, exactly what their children are learning in school, and what they will be learning in the future. One article in particular stressed the fact that anyone could follow the scripted curriculums and teach a class, whether they are a teacher or not. However, that poses a threat to the actual teachers, whose voices seem to get lost in the crowd. Based on the sources that I read regarding scripted curriculums, my overall position is that they can be beneficial if balanced with creative thinking. The key is granting the teachers the freedom to modify the curriculum, and fit it to the needs of their own students.
How and why should teachers see an increase in planning and collaboration time?
This research question has its roots in school day scheduling, but really it affects almost every aspect of school. Without proper times during the school day to plan lessons, most teachers take one of two paths: either they plan outside of the school during after hours, taking away from family and personal time, and quickly get burned out and overburdened, or they teach with a heavy emphasis on textbooks to do all the explaining. Both of these options have poor and quantitative outcomes: new teachers decide to leave teaching, leaving schools scrambling to find new teachers, and students are taught in a non-stimulating environment with a focus on memorization over understanding. Solutions to this problem also seem to fall into two categories: extending the school day, or shortening the amount of time teachers spend in the classroom. In Massachusetts, teachers have over an hour more time in school than teachers in Rhode Island, and Massachusetts is currently leading in teacher collaboration and planning time. However, the US has teachers teaching for almost 3 times as long as other countries - countries that "outperform" the US on standardized tests.
If either one of these strategies could be implemented in Rhode Island, collaboration would become achievable. Collaboration has been proven to be a key component of good teaching; with it comes the strong flow of ideas that participants can look at from different perspectives and can help each other to evaluate and implement. Teaches have found that collaboration reinvigorates their level of teaching, makes them feel like they have a support system, and brings communities together on a small and large scale. Collaboration is the next step to bring to the classroom if schools in the US want to help teachers and students succeed.
How can teachers differentiate instruction in the 21st century classroom?
In order to tackle this issue, we need to see what is going on in today's classrooms. How are individual student needs currently being dressed? What are the best and the worst ways educators are doing so? Are students being separated based on ability into homogeneous classrooms? In this kind of setting, how are students expected to improve and reach a better understanding of the mixed work force they will one day help comprise?
Unfortunately, this is happening is our classrooms. I have personally witnessed it, but luckily for me, on the better end of the spectrum. Not only are students being separated, however, but it has become more difficult to address the different difficulties students are encountering because of the shared standards they must all meet. Should students have to meet certain academic standards? Absolutely. Is it realistic to suggest that each individual student can reach these standards in the exact same way? No, that's absolutely ridiculous. Students have different learning styles as well as interests. My research involved finding articles, often written by an individual who is serving currently in "the field" that is the modern classroom, and studying their reports of how different kinds of approaches to instruction positively and negatively affect students. This is a key area in which teacher's must be allowed to address the issues in their class and practice their autonomy for not only themselves, but for the good of their students.
III. Group Product Overview
Lead Editor: Chris Parisella
After each member of our team investigated their individual topic, we came together in order to synthesize a presentation meant to effectively describe a teacher's autonomy in the 21st century classroom. We've each crafted brief power points in order to organize our thoughts as we take turns introducing the topics of teacher autonomy, teacher collaboration, and the effects of scripted curriculum on the classroom. On top of these individual presentations, we've included several fun activities, activities which we hope the class will enjoy. Students can participate in an interesting game of charades as well as an academically fueled race, cleverly devised by our very own Melissa Morris and Hayley Doyle. Our charades activity is meant to display just how little of a voice teacher's have today. Many are struggling to address the complex issues they face in their classrooms as they can't properly communicate their needs. Our second activity is meant to address how students all have different needs and areas of strength and weakness. Looking at it like a race, some students are suited to the scripted curriculum or method of teaching used conventionally while others have their "legs tied together" so to speak. However, because teachers are being discouraged to differentiate instruction, they can't do very much to help these students. In addition to all this, several individual members have included video's on their respective topics to add to their presentations.
IV. Visual Representation
Mindmap/Brainstorm:V. Research Questions and Reference Summaries
VI. Group Reaction/Opinion(s) about the issues related to this priority.
Lead Editor: Melissa MorrisWe believe that teachers need to be an integrative part of the decision-making process when it comes to education and school reform. Teachers need more of a voice because they are the driving factor that makes schools operate. Instead of placing teachers at the center of attention and asking them what they need, teachers in the US are being left to figure out how to find their way in a teaching environment on their own. Too often today teachers are given instructions from 'experts' on teaching, and are forced to follow any new changes. We believe that teachers should be allowed to use scripted curriculum as a resource, but not as the be-all and end-all of their teaching abilities; they should be allowed to differentiate curriculum based on students needs. Teachers should be given more time to collaborate, to plan, to share ideas, and to be motivated by each other.
Melissa: After researching teacher collaboration, I believe more strongly than ever that collaboration is a huge aspect of school and education reform, but in a bigger sense, I understand that teacher collaboration is dependent on all the topics my peers researched as well. My opinion on education reform therefore stems from the need to see the bigger, intertwining web of education issues, without losing focus on the goal: to help children succeed in the future, socially, academically, and in their well-being. I think that this debate should not be centered around money and politics, but instead should put teachers and students in the spotlight. I also think that we are focusing too much on the negative side of education as a nation. I wonder what affect it would have if we started highlighting things that teachers and administrators are doing well, and brainstorming how those things could be given as a suggestion to other schools. I also think that we should stop implementing things with a "top down" approach. If strategies are going to work on a national level, they need to be pilot tested at different types of schools that are willing to try something new so that the strategy can be evaluated and revised if necessary. Overall, I think that teachers should have more power, and the only way to do that is to flip the education reform argument upsidedown.
Hayley: The heart of America's education system is its teachers. Most people can recall a special teacher from their own schooling experience, usually because that teacher went above and beyond the standard curriculum and appealed individually to them. Teachers often choose to become teachers not because of the money, but because of the desire to influence the growth and development of the children. They are generally well-qualified, but their autonomy is constantly being violated. It has reached the point where it is one of the most important issues in education, because it has reached the point where this violation of rights is actually killing teachers' desires to teach. It is driving away the best teachers that we have, because we are restricting their creative rights and freedom. In some cases, teachers are personally offended by this deprivation of rights, and it makes them feel neglected, without a voice. Most of our teachers are extremely smart, caring, and passionate about their jobs; that is what makes children want to learn. If we continue to jeopardize their autonomy, then we are only going to drive the best ones away, and then what is left of our education system?
Kyle: After completing the research necessary in order to truly understand one of the greatest issues in american education today, I can say, with certainty, that teacher autonomy is a vital part of teaching that is woefully neglected in education today. After all, how are teachers meant to utilize their years of experience and their own intricate knowledge of each student as an independent learner if they are being hampered by scripted curriculum or standardized testing? The answer is, of course, that they can't. In order to better improve education as a whole, the only option, as the research shows, is to loosen(or do away with entirely)scripted curriculum and standardized testing'a control over what teacher's teach their students, and to give teachers more time for collaboration with one another. Based off of the entirety of the research that this group has done within the field of teacher autonomy, it is clear that this issue is no loner one that can be simply shunned or ignored by legislators, it is one that requires immediate and decisive action.
Chris: After reviewing our research alone, I'm more convinced than ever that our system needs serious reform. Scripted curriculum needs to be done away with completely. Students are individuals, and need to be treated as such. By teaching all students the same way, not only can teachers not play to their strengths in the classroom as they should, but they can't address what they identify as individual student's obvious strengths and weaknesses. By reducing the effects of scripted curriculum, differentiated instruction can then be more easily achieved. To reach this point however, it's first important to strengthen teacher voice. If teacher's can't vocalize important issues in their classroom's, how can they be solved? Solving these issues shouldn't be left up to administrators and politicians who can't possibly understand the issues these teachers are encountering in the field. Teacher collaboration additionally is something we need to see more of. Teachers in a given school are working with the same students. By communicating with one another, educators can form action plans to best tackle student issues. I strongly believe strengthening teacher voice is the first step that needs to be taken.